‘Married at First Sight’ replaces expert Jessica Griffin for the new season

“Married at First Sight” fans will see a new face among the esteemed relationship experts in the Season 9 premiere.

Psychologist Jessica Griffin, who has appeared for several years on Lifetime’s “Married at First Sight” and “90 Day Fiance” and is known as “Dr. Jessica,” has left the show.

“I wanted to confirm that I will not be returning to [“Married at First Sight”],” Griffin posted on Instagram Tuesday. “Working on these shows was challenging, intellectually stimulating, and a lot of fun – until it wasn’t.”

For months, rumors swirled that Griffin had gotten together with someone she had mentored on the show, John Francetic, a cast member from Season 6. At the end of his season, Francetic and the bride he was matched with, Molly Duff, decided to get a divorce.

Griffin and Francetic took their relationship public in August 2018, and Griffin insists that their relationship did not start while she was working with him as a therapist during filming. In April, Francetic proposed to Griffin during a romantic vacation at the Grand Canyon.

“Ironically, in the course of helping people find love, I met my future husband (albeit, so we’re clear, there was nothing remotely between us until we reconnected, platonically, 8 months after we finished filming. I went immediately to the production company & offered to step down. Instead, I was put on 3 subsequent cycles of shows/spinoffs),” she wrote in the same Instagram post.

Though she doesn’t say her engagement is the reason she’s no longer on the show, Griffin has parted ways with the network.

Coles is a marriage and couples therapist and mother-of-two. As President and Lead Psychotherapist at Houston Relationship Therapy, her private practice with multiple locations in Houston, she works with clients on everything from “betrayal and low desire to unhealthy communication and sexual dysfunction,” according to her bio. She worked with Roberson and Schwartz to screen hundreds of candidates for the new season in Charlotte, NC. She’ll work to mentor the four couples chosen to embark on legally-binding marriages after meeting for the first time at the altar.

On the premiere, Coles said, “My role on ‘Married at First Sight’ is to help these couples create lasting bonds based on physical and emotional intimacy.”